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Nitpicky About Breaking Bad And Bobby Bones
February 17, 2015
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Remember when the TV show, Lost had you all sucked in, but then by the last season, the title made a ton of sense to you, because you actually were?
Where Lost didn't get it right, Breaking Bad did.
But Breaking Bad had two obvious flaws to it. In the final season, when DEA agent Hank takes meth chef, Jesse Pinkman to his house, Pinkman falls asleep through the night, and wakes up to coffee offered by Hank's wife Marie. Later in the day, Hank's partner joins him to question Pinkman.
Pinkman has to go to the bathroom. When he asks Hank if he can, Hank says yes, then chimes in, "second door on the left."
Errors That'll Make You Hate Breaking Bad
Well I call B.S. on that. He's there all night, has coffee in the morning and breakfast, yet it's not until later in that second day that his bladder finally needs to be emptied. This wouldn't have been Jesse's first bathroom break, and because of that it ruins the whole TV show for me.
Just kidding.
In another scene, Hank and Marie are watching Holly, the baby of Walt and Skylar White, because things have become too dangerous for their children to be with them at home.
While Hank and Marie are attempting to calm Holly, there is a gaff with continuity as Holly's little pink hat is covering her ears, then as the camera shifts to another angle the ears are no longer covered, then back and forth for another two or three unmatched edits. And because of that, it ruined the whole TV show for me.
Again, I kid.
The point is this: Neither Jesse's amazing ability to hold his urine for 24 hours, nor Holly's ability to make her hat raise on her head like Tabitha in Bewitched, was enough to stop Breaking Bad from being the show to oust Mad Men as the best TV had to offer, although I'm not sure why Dance Mom's wasn't at least an honorable mention.
Now, Even I Know How To Make Meth!
Breaking Bad made us care about meth makers; which is how amazingly crazy good the show was. It built character where there shouldn't have been any. Jesse was a bad guy; WAIT!! …who wasn't all that bad.
It had a clear beginning, middle and an end. It found the GOOD in the BAD.
We could nitpick our morning and afternoon talent to death just like I did Breaking Bad, finding small inconsistencies that they may execute from time-to-time; to divert focus on the things they do so right.
When I was in college in Chicago, Jonathan Brandmeier was the new morning guy at WLUP, and in radio class, teachers and students alike would say things like, "he's a Steve Dahl rip-off."
Steve Dahl had a band called "Teenage Radiation." Steve Dahl often made references to Leisure Suits. Jonny B had a band called "The Leisure Suits." Steve Dahl did parody songs. Jonny B did parody songs. Steve Dahl was kind of a bad guy. Jonny B also had that sense of mischievousness.
I Wish He Was On In The Midday
To me, Jonny B only had one thing wrong that I knew of. He was on IN THE MORNING, when I was still sleeping. I'd still sleep until 9am if I didn't have a job. ME LIKES MY SLEEP! ZZZZZzzzzzz
But Jonny wasn't a Steve Dahl rip-off. He may have truly been influenced by Dahl, but what he did the second he got on the air in Chicago, was BECOME CHICAGO, and, in time, by LOVING the city he was in, they loved him back in return.
I was reading some horrific comments a couple of months back. The Bobby Bones Show didn't get nominated for a CMA award, and he took to the airwaves to vent, which is a bold move since the people he is venting about could very well be in his listening audience.
Before his broadcast was even through, Bobby's rants had begun to go viral as if people were listening, just waiting for him to put his foot in his mouth, so they could share it with everyone who wasn't.
Bobby Bones Is A Pr!@&
I was reading comments about Mr. Bones, who I don't know, that were not nice. He's a THIS, and a THAT, the comments said; most of them containing expletives, or words that, in the fourth grade, wouldn't have been allowed to come out of your mouth without your mother slapping you in the puss.
But then I read what he said on his show. "Everyone calm down. I don't have to win every award. Getting 1000, 'how are you not up for CMA personality of the year' right now."
I knew from the second I read that, that if Bobby was truly a THIS and a THAT; that I was about to find him endearing like I did the meth chef, because this guy KNOWS how to set up conflict. I was dealing with a radio pro who was actually choosing his words wisely.
And the onslaught that followed was EXACTLY what the chef had cooked up in his radio kitchen. I kept reading.
"…it's not an 'injustice.' I simply don't play the political games the format is known for. Also Jason Aldean got screwed too! I'd like to thank the almost 500 radio stations I'm on & you the listener for the millions of $$$ we've raised for charity this year."
Brilliant!! Jason Aldean fans don't care what chaos Bobby is brewing behind the scenes. They just care that their lil' Jason wins a trophy, bless their hearts.
Look Up The Word Schadenfreude
While bitter commentary continued from our Industry, I couldn't help but be drawn in, for the first time, by the man who is Bobby Bones, who commented about the only way he would win a CMA award in the future.
"…going to need a lot of old people in this industry to retire or die before the Nashville 'guard' lets something new get recognized."
I tuned in to his morning radio show the next chance I got, and I bet I wasn't the only one checking him out for the first time. I found a plot similar to that of Walt White, the plight of a man with cancer, who will go to extremes to do the right thing for his family, while he faces his final hour.
But in this case, the cancer wasn't the man's; and it wasn't the woman's, but instead, the woman's mother's.
Cancer Is A Pr!@&
Bobby's co-host Amy was not in the studio, but instead was in Texas, via ISDN, there because her mother, Judy had cancer, and it was time for her to be home. Anyone who has gone through a loved one dying, knows the pain, the sadness, in the days just before that final one; and while Amy shared her heart, I remembered mine just days before my dad passed.
As melancholy, as this show should have been, it was a slice of 'real life,' and for the next three days going to work, I listened to Bobby Bones.
On one show, Bobby made mention that watching sports helps you lose weight because the intensity of a good game that gets you on edge, burns calories. Amy responded, "I get that from watching the WALKING DEAD!"
Ding ding ding! Every time a bell rings, a DJ gets replaced by the Bobby Bones show and deservingly so.
Seinfeld, Friends & The Bobby Bones Show
This was a show of finely tuned characters. Bobby Bones reminded me of Jonny B, at that time when the Steve Dahl comparisons began to fade and Brandmeier's star began to shine on its own. Bobby Bones had complete command of his show, the humor, the contest and games, the content, his cast and crew; and I got the sense that this was not "Complete Sheet" radio, but a cast, truly living it out on the air.
I had become invested; and on that day Amy's mother passed, I felt her pain.
In Judy's honor, the Bobby Bones show did a charity concert, promising to raise 50k for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. They raised 100k more than their goal. The artist they got was none other than the one snubbed by the CMA, Jason Aldean.
And with THAT, our story has a beginning, middle and end.
Oh, no…wait…the CMA award is a better ending. It's ONLY a matter of time.
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"The Bobby Bones Show" co-host Amy decorates cupcakes with a patient at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. -
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